00:00This Saturday, Israel's military said that Gaza City remains a dangerous combat zone.
00:06Earlier, the Israeli government said it was preparing to immediately implement the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.
00:14The U.S. president had told Israel to stop bombing the enclave.
00:18However, Gaza's civil defense agency reported heavy bombardment overnight.
00:23Hamas and Islamic Jihad have accepted parts of the peace proposal.
00:26For more, let's speak to our correspondent in Jerusalem.
00:30Noga Tarnopolsky. Hello to you, Noga.
00:32It's been a whirlwind. It's been a confusing and a busy day.
00:36Media reports, rumors, speculation.
00:39Noga, can you take us through it all?
00:43That is absolutely right, Will.
00:46I don't remember a day like this almost in two years since this war began.
00:51And we are still in a whirlwind, let me say, with conflicting reports and rumors
00:57and positioning from different interested parties coming at us every few minutes.
01:03And it's difficult to make complete sense of all of these changes ahead of concrete steps being taken.
01:10But what, in terms of concrete steps, I do understand that the Israeli negotiating team will leave Israel as soon as a few hours from now for Cairo,
01:21which is set to be the new site of renewed negotiations.
01:25Again, it's my understanding that the person Prime Minister Netanyahu has nominated to head this team is his right-hand man,
01:35his top consigliere, Ron Dermer, the former U.S. ambassador to the United States.
01:41And this is being received with great fear by the families of hostages here in Israel
01:46because he was appointed by Netanyahu to head the hostage negotiating team some 250 days ago
01:54when Netanyahu fired the then head of the Shin Bet Security Agency and the head of the Mossad
02:00to be replaced with this crony of his.
02:03And since then, not one hostage was released.
02:05So there's great fear on the Israeli side that this could be torpedoed.
02:10In terms of Hamas, the latest we're hearing is that there may be something of an internal division,
02:17and that may explain the conflicting messages we're hearing there.
02:20The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Arab sources, in other words, sources in Egypt and in Qatar,
02:28among the mediating nations, that there is a division between what is called the political leadership
02:35of the Hamas terror group that sits in Qatar, led by Khalil al-Khaya,
02:40who was the subject of a failed Israeli assassination attempt just a few weeks ago,
02:45and is Adin al-Haddad the military leader of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip.
02:52There may be a conflict there with is Adin al-Haddad refusing this Trump deal
02:58and possibly faced with a more realpolitik situation,
03:02the political leadership of Hamas in Doha, acknowledging that they have to go for this.
03:08In Israel, we're also getting complex leaks from the authorities here.
03:13For example, just a few minutes ago, an unnamed Israeli source told the national broadcaster here
03:19that Israel does not take Hamas's declaration last night as an acceptance of the Trump framework
03:26as Donald Trump did accept it.
03:29So the ceasefire, such as it is right now, has been very much forced on Israel.
03:36What I know is that the bombing and the shelling did continue overnight,
03:40but that today we were formally informed by the army
03:43that the army had retreated into only defensive positions,
03:48shooting only in self-defense.
03:51It still remains an extremely dangerous situation.
03:53I haven't heard of air sorties since the morning over Gaza,
03:58but it is true that the Israeli military spokesman in the Arabic language
04:03did put out an advisory urging the residents of Gaza City not to return,
04:08saying that this is still an active war zone.
04:11So what we're seeing is, on the one hand, extremely dramatic developments,
04:16such that we might see the almost miraculous sight of Israeli hostages being released
04:24even within a matter of hours or days.
04:27That is clearly a possibility right now.
04:29And yet, this entire momentum could still fall apart
04:33if obstacles that each side may see in its interest come into play.
04:40One important thing to add to this, Will, is today is Saturday's the Jewish Sabbath.
04:46Much of Prime Minister Netanyahu's cabinet, many of them are observant Jews, don't respond.
04:53It's unclear if these ministers are even aware fully of what has gone on
04:57in the last 12 very significant hours.
05:01And so Netanyahu could find himself with a rebellion among his extremist cabinet members.
05:07Also, as early as tonight, just as thousands of Israelis again hit the streets
05:14in vast protest plan tonight to try and push this deal through.
05:18Yeah, and so many moving parts there, Nogo, as you outlined.
05:21The internal politics of Israel, the leadership of Hamas, its political and military branches.
05:27I mean, if you just had to guess, what are the chances that this deal could be achieved?
05:35Well, several things seem to have happened to change the atmosphere.
05:41One is that the strike I mentioned just a few moments ago,
05:46the Israeli strike against Hamas leadership in Doha, the Qatari capital,
05:52appears to have been a very severe miscalculation on Prime Minister Netanyahu's part.
05:59It was, first of all, undertaken against the advice of his military chiefs.
06:05That we know for a fact.
06:06Against the advice of the Israeli army, against the advice of the Mossad.
06:09And it failed in its aim to kill the entire Hamas leadership in Doha.
06:15And it is a bee in the bonnet of President Trump, who has both personal and national interests,
06:23not only in Qatar, but in the entire Persian Gulf.
06:27So this seems to have been what triggered Donald Trump's final eruption of impatience.
06:33And his announcement yesterday that he was taking Hamas' statement as a yes and moving ahead
06:40appears very much to have been coordinated ahead of time with Qatar and with Egypt,
06:46who immediately put out positive announcements.
06:48That said, neither Hamas nor Israel are among the top stakeholders in the negotiation
06:55as it has been underway thus far.
06:57So it is easy, on the one hand, to imagine that this momentum now can't be stopped.
07:03And that if Hamas, for example, tries to withdraw its statement about releasing all the Israeli
07:08hostages, that Qatar could simply threaten this Hamas leadership with annihilation in the
07:14only place in the world right now where they are safe.
07:17Similarly, if Netanyahu tries to take back his very public acceptance of this deal, Donald
07:23Trump could cut off weapon sales to Israel.
07:25So both are right now in a bit of a corner waiting for Donald Trump's decision.
07:31All right, Noga, thank you very much.
07:32Noga Tarnopolski reporting from Jerusalem for more.
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